Iw Hog Farm `Town Meeting' May Be A Ripsnorter

Swine Operations A Delicate Issue

ISLE OF WIGHT — A fight against the influx of large hog farms in Isle of Wight County is expected to escalate as opponents of the operations stage a ``town meeting'' next week to recruit support.

Several local and state legislators as well as county and state environmental officials are expected to speak at the forum at 7 p.m. Monday at the county courthouse.

The Isle of Wight Defense League, a sponsor of the event, is a group of residents who organized about three months ago to protest what they believe is the influx of several large hog farms planned for different areas of the county.

Stephen Merrill, a Norfolk attorney representing the league, said the meeting was planned to give citizens a chance to learn more about the effect of intensive hog farming on the area and the environment.

Members of the league fear the farms will pollute their air and water and create a nuisance in their neighborhoods when manure from the hogs is spread onto nearby fields as fertilizer.

They also say they are afraid the value of their homes and land will plummet because nobody will want to live near the big hog farms.

But what the league is really angry about is the county's lack of regulation of large livestock operations in agricultural zones.

The county Planning Commission, in response to the citizens' complaints, appointed in September a three-member committee to look into regulating intensive livestock operations, such as the hog farms.

But the opposition claims that the committee's subsequent recommendations to the Planning Commission are too weak and will do little to protect residents from encroaching livestock farms. The recommendations are basically setback requirements regulating how close the farms can be to existing dwellings.

League officials also charge that there is a conflict of interest in the fact that Smithfield Foods president Robert W. Manly, a member of the Planning Commission, was a member of the committee that came up with the recommendations. Most of the hogs raised on the large livestock operation will eventually be sold to Manly's meatpacking plants.

County leaders say there is a delicate balance between pacifying the residents and maintaining good relations with Smithfield Foods, the county's largest employer, and the impetus for increasing hog production in Isle of Wight and neighboring localities.

``We have got to continue to afford farmers the opportunity to produce livestock for those meatpacking plants,'' said Francis Griffin, chairman of the Planning Commission. ``Without livestock, they can't operate, and that would be a terrible situation for this county to be in.''

Among the issues to be discussed at the meeting Monday is the state's new Right To Farm law, which restricts localities, such as the county, from regulating farming activities, including livestock operations.